Small-scale CO2 Utilization Plants

Published November 2023

Overreliance on fossil fuels has contributed to a critical energy crisis and increased the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere. Human activities like industrialization and deforestation are primarily responsible for most of the GHG emissions. Carbon dioxide is one of the most dangerous GHGs to global warming and climate changes. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), about 36 billion tons of CO₂ are emitted each year through transportation, power generation, cement manufacturing, deforestation, agriculture and many other practices. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) proposed a treaty to limit global warming to below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, namely the Paris Agreement in 2015.

CO₂ accounts for more than 75% of the total GHG emissions, seriously affecting the environment and having detrimental effects on human health, such as headaches and respiratory diseases. Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies can play a key role in curbing the CO₂ emissions by capturing the CO₂ at source, recycling and utilizing as feedstock to other value-added chemicals production. A plethora of CO₂ novel capture methodologies are under investigation by different institutions and organizations. The intent of these technologies is to capture CO₂ from air or industrial waste gases and sequester it in the ground. Many companies are working on the same issue, i.e., to reduce the CO₂ emissions, capture at source, recycle or utilize to produce some other value-added products. These companies include Sunfire, Hitachi Hozen Inova/ETOGAS, Haldor Topsøe, Det Norske Veritas (DNV), Carbon Recycling International (CRI), Carbon Engineering, BSE Engineering, Dimensional Energy, and others.

Process Economics Program (PEP) has previously evaluated Sunfire and ETOGAS CO₂ utilization technologies for production of synthesis gas and methane, two major feedstocks for several chemical products. These evaluations and analyses were provided in PEP Report 285A. In this report, we have examined the following technologies to utilize CO₂ to produce value-added chemical products:

• Haldor Topsøe eCO^TM technology to produce carbon monoxide using high-temperature solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) process
• CRI’s Vulcanol^TM technology to produce methanol via syngas route
• Haldor Topsøe TREMP^TM technology to produce methane by upgrading biogas with hydrogen produced from high-temperature SOEC